A Claptrap's Existence
by Nicksta101
Summary: The backstory of the lonely Claptrap found in Old Haven. Part One of Two.
1. Where It All Began

_**A Claptrap's Existence**_

**-Where It All Began-**

In the dawn of another day in Pandora, a little unknown Claptrap is waiting the return of his master- T.K Baha. T.K Baha lost his _real _leg and his prosthetic leg to a skag named Scar. Dr. Zed had taken T.K out in Fyrestone to show him the progress he had made on an all-new apparently "indestructible" limb which would enable T.K to walk again. The new leg was being built out of materials funded by the Pangolin and Anshin companies. Two manufacturers who only focus on class mods and shields. What Dr. Zed could never cure however was T.K's blindness. After a splash of acid from a bandit's elemental weapon, T.K's eyes were corroded away. A loud shot echoed up the hills and the little Claptrap jumped back into T.K's shack. The shadows of Dr. Zed with T.K Baha in a cart ran along the sand. T.K was holding the corpse of a freshly killed whelp skag. The pathetic squeaking of the wheels didn't bother Dr. Zed or T.K.

Dr. Zed was as mean looking as he always had been and T.K wasn't bothered at all. Fyrestone had a population of 24 people who had mainly kept to themselves. They were all chased out by Sledge's bandits leaving just four people left who were T.K, Dr. Zed, Shep Sanders and a friendly Claptrap by the Fyrestone bounty board. T.K lived in a shack just outside Fyrestone. Claptrap wheeled his way to T.K and said cheerfully, "Welcome home, Sir. Would you like me to warm up some Bladeflower soup to warm you're peckers on?" T.K nudged the little Claptrap away with the butt of his rifle and spat where it was standing. Dr. Zed pulled T.K out of the cart and handed him his cane. T.K limped to the wooden deck of his shack where he sat on his rocking chair. Dr. Zed pushed the empty cart back to Fyrestone. Claptrap was left with his master who had never appreciated him. Claptrap was built to help T.K after T.K lost his sight and leg. T.K had proved many times he could handle himself without Claptrap like the time when T.K dragged himself through Skag Gully to get back home after Scar had torn off his real leg and his prosthetic leg on two separate occasions. Claptrap had nothing to offer to change T.K's mind so he wheeled around the shack and pushed a small green switch. The green Dahl crate slide to its left and revealed a small space where the Claptrap lived. Claptrap went in and pushed another green switch which made the Dahl crate close.


	2. A Little Help Here?

_**A Claptrap's Existence**_

**-A Little Help Here?-**

The next morning T.K Baha got a message from Dr. Zed over the radio that he needs T.K's Claptrap to get down to Fyrestone and repair the med vendors. The message read, _the vendors are up the fritz again, get your robo-friend down here to fix 'em!_

T.K flicked the radio off and yelled out aloud for the Claptrap to get over to him. The mechanical sounds of the Dahl crate sliding open and closed prompted T.K to lean back in his chair as acknowledgement that Claptrap heard him. Claptrap kicked up dust when we wheeled over to T.K but got more abuse when he stopped next to T.K.

"Piss off to Fyrestone and help Dr. Zed fix his vending machines!" T.K fired his rifle in the air to scare Claptrap into moving from the spot. Claptrap wheeled away at a normal pace, Fyrestone wasn't anymore than a 100 yards away. For a bandit or a hunter the route from T.K's to Fyrestone would be a doddle because they would have a weapon. Many skag caves littered the small slope where Claptrap had to go down. Claptraps aren't fighters at all and skags could tear Claptraps to pieces at any time.

Claptrap trundled down the slope with care and passed the road and entered Fyrestone. A charming entrance to Fyrestone was the graveyard where the dead were mostly killed by being run down by Sledge's bandits driving Runners or killed by skags. Next to the bounty board was another Claptrap robot. The two Claptraps waved at one another when T.K's Claptrap passed. Claptrap went inside Dr. Zed's infirmary and stopped dead in his tracks. A rotting corpse was laying mutilated on a surgical table right in front of Dr. Zed. Dr. Zed was holding a machete with a circular blade at the tip to form a multi-purpose tool. Dr. Zed planted the tool in the chest of the corpse and walked over to Claptrap. He leaned against a med vendor and said "This here machine is broken; it needs another power cell- one that works."

"I'll see to it right away, stranger." Claptrap ran off past Marcus Kincaid's gun store to a heap of trash. The trash was sat next to a wall which divided Fyrestone from Bonehead's hideout. Claptrap fished around for a power cell which could possibly work. Fyrestone didn't have many spare parts, mostly everything ran of generators. Considering Sledge had control over Zephyr Substation Fyrestone had to use other methods for power. Claptrap through a box to his left and saw a working power cell! He couldn't believe it. He snatched it up and hurried back to Dr. Zed. Claptrap threw away the broken power cell and installed the new one. The med vendor lit up with power. Dr. Zed thanked the little Claptrap before Claptrap passed the road to the slope. Claptrap was humming to himself when an adult skag pounced on him from behind.

Claptrap yelled out "Help! Somebody, help!" Claptrap was being dragged to a nearby skag cave by one of his cables which became disconnected from him. A moment later the dragging stopped and the skag laid dead. A vault hunter walked up to the Claptrap and helped him up on his wheel. She was a siren. She reconnected the cable. Claptrap gave her a backpack SDU in return and she then entered phasewalk and reappeared outside Bonehead's hideout. Claptrap went back home and saw explosions in the distance. The vault hunter was laying waste to Bonehead's home. The little Claptrap told T.K about the repairs in Fyrestone but T.K was fast asleep. Claptrap sat next to T.K watching Bonehead's downfall.


	3. When Two Worlds Collide

_**A Claptrap's Existence**_

**-When Two Worlds Collide-**

The news that Fyrestone was free from the maniacal tyranny of Bonehead spread throughout the Arid Badlands. Since there were only four people living in Fyrestone (which was the only friendly settlement in the Arid Badlands) there wasn't much of a celebration. Everyone else was a bandit and the bandits were hell-bent on retribution. News that Nine-Toes had been killed also angered the bandits even more. The little Claptrap had seen and been rescued by the vault hunter who was killing off the bandits. Claptrap saw the vault hunter drive back and forth from Fyrestone from time to time. She even visited T.K Baha now and then and helped him with his troubles such as killing Scar and retrieving his prosthetic leg again.

Claptrap was in Fyrestone with Dr. Zed helping him build T.K's new leg. Anshin had recently sent Dr. Zed some materials to help build the leg. Claptrap was getting in Dr. Zed's way more than anything and soon kicked the little Claptrap out of his clinic. Claptrap wheeled off to the bounty board and noticed that the usual Fyrestone Claptrap wasn't here. Claptrap posted a mission on the bounty board for anybody who needed extra work. Claptrap went further south into the graveyard when he heard the distant rumble of a Runner. It wasn't the sound of a normal Runner but the sound of a much bigger and louder Runner. Claptrap's fear was shivering, Claptrap wanted to dive out of the way and hide but he just couldn't move. The massive Runner skidded to a halt outside the entrance to Fyrestone and a huge behemoth of a man stepped out. His head was obscured by a mask and he was wearing spiked armour on his shoulders and forearms. Claptrap knew who he was; he was the most feared bandit in the Arid Badlands, Sledge. Sledge had been majorly pissed off by the deaths of Nine-Toes and Bonehead and was seeking to eradicate the last remaining Fyrestone population. Sledge upholstered his shotgun and fired without a moment's hesitation at the little Claptrap. Because of the terrible accuracy of the bullets spread, only one of the two bullets hit Claptrap. Claptrap was hit in the panel where he keeps his ECHO devices. Not the most crucial point of a Claptrap robot but enough to knock him back some feet and disable him. "No mercy for anyone who threatens Sledge!" Sledge was completely uncreative with his tactics, but nobody would have expected just himself invading Fyrestone. Sledge walked past the disabled Claptrap and fired blindly at the buildings. Dr. Zed very quickly activated the shutter to close down the clinic and protect him from Sledge. Sledge was shouting out obscenities and firing on anything.

Strange sounds caught Sledge's attention, he turned around and he saw a purple aura disappear. Sledge fired blindly where the aura stood. Sledge turned around again at the same sound and fired again. The third time Sledge felt a push on his back with a stinging pain. His back had been punched by a corrosive effect. Sledge turned around and caught Lilith's shoulder with the blade of his shotgun. Lilith dived out of the way and unloaded on Sledge's massive body with a corrosive submachine gun. Sledge was moving forwards still with the intention of bludgeoning Lilith with his sledgehammer. Lilith dived out of the way again and activated her "striking" ability which caused Sledge's movements to slow down massively. She then ran to the Claptrap and repaired him swiftly. She hurried him away before he could give her a gift. Claptrap ran like hell back to the slope beside the main road where he watched Lilith continue to unload corrosive rounds at Sledge. Just before Lilith could enter phasewalk again Sledge swung his sledgehammer and caught Lilith on her head sending her slamming into a building wall. Sledge who was now quite weak ran back to his Runner and drove off without knowing the Claptrap was alive very near the Runner. Claptrap peeked out to make sure Sledge was gone and wheeled off to find Lilith. Claptrap slowly made his way past the torn up area of Fyrestone and saw the impact that Lilith had made on the wall. Claptrap threw away pieces of trash where he saw a corrosive submachine gun left behind. Lilith had gone into phasewalk when she landed. Claptrap took the corrosive weapon and knocked on Dr. Zed's shutter.

"Who is it? Is Sledge gone?" Dr. Zed asked

"The bad man's gone, Sir?" Claptrap replied. Dr. Zed slowly opened up the shutter door and Claptrap gave him the corrosive weapon. "Take this doo-dad for your safety; it seems the vault hunter rubbed Sledge up the wrong way. I'll be going now!" Claptrap ran quickly to T.K's.

When he got there he found the front door left wide open. Claptrap slowly moved his sight in the shack and recoiled in horror. Claptrap sat down with his wheel and arms folded inside him and shivered in fear. T.K Baha was hanging by his shoelaces on a ceiling fan with his hands tied behind him. T.K's mouth was hanging open and completely dislocated. Claptrap moved a little closer and saw a note pinned on his arm by a drawing pin. Claptrap read it aloud "Sledge is gonna kill you, like killing you with hammers- b!g style!" Claptrap couldn't believe it. The bandits must have been watching him leave T.K's home and killed him or Claptrap just left at the right time. Either way, Sledge's plan of taking Fyrestone backfired thanks to the vault hunter but ultimately he retreated. Claptrap had nothing left anymore in the Arid Badlands, with no future he travelled to the far side of the Arid Badlands and spoke with the green Claptrap at the Dahl Headland gate. "I have clearance for the Dahl Headlands."

"Excellent! I'll just prop open the gates and you'll be on your way!" The door opened revealing a darker desert unlike the brightness of the Arid Badlands, the Dahl Headlands where Runners roam free terrorizing whoever is stupid enough to stay.

At the end of the world is the Arid Badlands.


	4. Centre of the World is the Dahl Headland

**-At the Centre of the World Is the Dahl Headlands-**

Claptrap crossed the gate dividing the Arid Badlands and the Dahl Headlands. The gate closed with a noisy grinding sound which ended with dust and dirt showering Claptrap as the gate closed. Claptrap wriggled like a dog caught in the rain to get all the dirt off. Claptrap recoiled with a slight scream when he saw behind the tall fence a Runner jump furiously from the ridge onto the open plains. Claptrap was safe behind the fence but Mad Mel's bandits would be a lethal threat if anyone was caught in the plains. Claptrap didn't know where to go but he had to escape the Arid Badlands. Sadly, the only way out that has roads leading to anywhere remotely safe had to be found through the Dahl Headlands- one of the most dangerous parts of Pandora. Claptrap climbed the slope to Ernest Whitting's home where many large extraordinary skeletons of skags and rakk hung from the wires above his home. This slope all belonged to him.

Claptrap stopped in front of Ernest's home and looked at the doormat which read "God bless this house- my rifle protects it". Claptrap threw a stone through the open door and knocked the toilet seat down. Ernest jumped into the open doorway with a rifle and unloaded a bullet into Claptrap's body punching Claptrap into the ramp tumbling off the cliff side. Claptrap's wailing reverberated all the way down until it was stopped by a metallic thud. Ernest realised what he shot wasn't human or animal. Ernest quickly walked to the ramp and peered down below and saw a shivering Claptrap with a bullet hole on the left side of his body. "Oh, crap." Ernest climbed down the long ladder beside the ramp and when he reached the bottom he inspected Claptrap. Claptrap uttered out "That's the third time already…" Ernest rolled Claptrap on his side to look for an exit wound. There wasn't one so the bullet was still stuck in Claptrap's body. Ernest looked up from Claptrap to the where the hills rose and fell. Ernest saw two Runners speeding past now and then, was he about to be seen Ernest thought? Ernest climbed back up the ladder and activated his Catch-A-Ride station. Ernest usually kept it offline when he wasn't using it so bandits wouldn't come running if they saw the lights on. Ernest spawned his Runner and drove the Runner through the gate he had just opened which led straight to Claptrap down a slight slope connected to the main slope.

Ernest dumped Claptrap's shivering body in the Runner and he then climbed back in. The sound of roaring Runners rolled from the hills in the distance to Ernest's immediate vicinity. Just as Ernest thought, the lights of the Catch-A-Ride station caught the bandit's attention. Both Runners had a bandit driving, one on a gun turret and two psychos on either side with their buzz-axes ready to kill. Ernest immediately dropped two psychos from the nearest Runner with two bullets from his elephant gun. Ernest dived over his Runner and unloaded another four bullets into the other Runner which all struck the fuel stock with catastrophic damage, before the bandits could even begin to think about driving away the Runner blew up in flames. The last Runner stopped and the two bandits jumped out and unloaded their sub-machine guns into Ernest's Runner. Ernest blind-threw a MIRV grenade into the bandit's Runner which caught the two bandits on fire burning to the ground. The Runner exploded showering Ernest, his Runner and Claptrap with charred metal. Ernest exhaled deeply before driving his Runner back through the gate which closed behind him and parked it in the Catch-A-Ride station which then shut down killing the lights. Ernest dragged the moaning Claptrap up the slope.

"I can see the code…" Claptrap uttered

"Hold on, Claptrap" Ernest said a little too jokily than he intended as he finally reached his home which was a tiny shack. Ten minutes later Claptrap was disabled while Ernest prepped Claptrap for a little robo-surgery as the sun sunk into the cliffs near Lucky's Last Chance Watering Hole.


	5. Where Sleeping Robots Lie

**-Where Sleeping Robots Lie-**

The next day Ernest Whitting was awaiting the arrival of the vault hunter Dr. Zed told him about. The vault hunter had killed the bandit Sledge and freed the Arid Badlands from his tyranny. Ernest watched as numerous Runners drove wildly around the open plains of the Dahl Headlands only this time there were many more Runners than usual. Clearly, Ernest thought to himself that the bandits knew Sledge had been killed. The sound of a grinding gate opening caught Ernest's attention; he looked to his right and saw a roaring Runner speeding to a halt by the wind turbine next to the tall fence. Ernest sat on his chair unafraid. He knew bandits couldn't get through the gate and with bandit Runners practically driving next door to him was commonplace. The vault hunter, Lilith ran up the slope and spoke to Ernest.

"Dr. Zed told me to speak to you, Ernest?"

"Yeah, that's me. You must be the one who kacked Sledge, well, you've sure as hell yanked Mad Mel's chain. Take a look over there." Ernest pointed past Lilith's shoulder where she looked behind and saw the amount of Runners speeding around. "You've got to get through that to get to New Haven. Now, my friend Lucky Zaford is held hostage in the Last Chance Watering Hole over yonder. Save him and you'll get closer to New Haven. I can't because I got my problems with my conscious." Lilith disappeared into phasewalk and Ernest stepped into his shack and opened a back door where Claptrap lay sedated.

The bullet Ernest had shot Claptrap with did more damage than Ernest thought. He managed to extract the bullet but Claptrap needed time to recover under sedation. The drugs would wear off in two hours time where Claptrap would only need a jumpstart before he would be good as new. In the distance Ernest saw the dirt where Lucky's Last Chance Watering Hole stood kicking up by the bullets that fired intensely back and forth. All Ernest could do now was watch as the vault hunter took her violent crusade against the bandits in the Dahl Headlands.


	6. Rude Awakening

**-Rude Awakening-**

Two hours later Ernest Whitting revived Claptrap from sedation and jumpstarted him with makeshift shock paddles. Claptrap was alive and well. Any normal Claptrap would spring to life with their sense of humour and good manner untouched. However, Claptrap was depressed, his cruel master was dead and Claptrap had no purpose to live on. Claptrap simply rolled on his front and picked himself up. He saw Ernest sitting in front of him in the small shack. Ernest's features were grizzly and he looked like a seasoned veteran of hunting wild animals. Ernest asked Claptrap if he was OK, Claptrap uttered a small word. "No."

Ernest leaned forward and asked Claptrap what was wrong, Claptrap moved back into the wall and pointed his arm at Ernest as if he was an enemy.

"They killed my master; they killed him and hung him out to dry- it never rains here!" Claptrap then hunkered down and began shivering while crying. Ernest asked who Claptrap's master was and Claptrap responded with "T.K Baha".

Ernest Whitting left Claptrap to cry in his shack while he walked to the tall fence looking at the open plains. The vault hunter freed Lucky Zaford and destroyed a bunch of bandit Runners in the meantime. Ernest turned his back on the fence only to quickly turn back when he saw a purple beam of light shoot up from the surface beyond the Last Chance Watering Hole and stab the sky. The tip of the beam brushed the sky with a swirling aura of purple light. Indeed the Fast Travel Network was operational once again after months of inactivity. Clearly, Lucky Zaford had informed the vault hunter of the problem and the vault hunter gave the people of Pandora the access to the Fast Travel Network. Ernest Whitting then found an idea. He had a New-U station next to the Catch-A-Ride station by his home; he could get the Claptrap hooked up on the Fast Travel Network and buzz him to New Haven where he would be looked after. Ernest Whitting grabbed hold of Claptrap's arm while he was crying and dragged him to the New-U station. Claptrap began to shout in anger and fear "Where are you taking me?" Ernest released Claptrap next to the New-U station and knelt down next to him and explained his plan.

"You don't want to stay here; New Haven has people who can help you, in fact one of them is your dead master's friend, Scooter. The Fast Travel Network is online now for the first time in months, before it possibly goes off again I'm going to hook you up and buzz you through to New Haven." Claptrap murmured in agreement and Ernest shoved two red and blue wires into Claptrap's sockets in his back. Ernest poked a few buttons on the New-U station and a picture of New Haven appeared on the control panel.

"You had better not come back." Ernest said with all seriousness. Ernest pushed a big green button and Claptrap disappeared into nothingness.


	7. Strange New World

**-Strange New World-**

No more than twenty seconds had passed when Claptrap reappeared in New Haven. His feet clumsily landed on the sand in an open area which was the square or entrance to New Haven. Claptrap fell sideways when he landed and stayed there for a moment or two before he realised that he was no longer in the Dahl Headlands. New Haven, or from Claptrap's perspective at least looked no different than the Dahl Headlands. The sand was the same colour, buildings were rusting, made from scrap and the air was about as clean as the gate which Claptrap went through to get to the Dahl Headlands. Claptrap picked himself up and spun a full circle to inspect his surroundings. Right in front of him stood the entrance gate to New Haven. Not that tall but quite wide with a half-arsed attempt at a sign which read "New Haven" written in red ink. It was a safe bet it could have been written with blood. To Claptrap's left was Scooter's Runners. He sat behind a table with a bottle of whiskey and a pissed off look on his face. Claptrap moved forwards a little between the barriers that stopped Runners getting deeper into New Haven and wheeled himself into a three-story building. He met Helena Pierce in the ground floor who shooed him away immediately.

Everybody seemed totally unaware of anybody else in New Haven. Claptrap moved to his right and proceeded down an alleyway where shopkeepers had no customers and looked bored out of they're minds. Claptrap saw the New Haven bounty board and moved quickly towards it. Before he checked what was posted on it he heard cries of pain close to him. Claptrap peered around the board and saw a blue Claptrap robot on the floor with oil leaking out of him. Claptrap ran into the infirmary ahead of him and found a medical Claptrap robot that was shivering beside a stretcher with a dead body on it. Claptrap nudged the medical Claptrap who then jumped into the air and sprinted out of the infirmary waving his arms in the air leaving behind a trail of dust which slowly vanished. Claptrap snatched a repair kit from the shelf and returned to the blue Claptrap where Claptrap then did a quick diagnostic on the blue Claptrap and got him working again. The blue Claptrap sprung to life and danced a little before shaking Claptrap's hand. The blue Claptrap stood by the bounty board posting various news items on the display.

Claptrap left the blue Claptrap and doubled back a little bit and went into a very narrow alleyway opposite Marcus Kincaid's shop and emerged in a small space with a table and four chairs with a deck of cards strewn across the table. Three residents stood against the walls completely silent. Just before Claptrap moved a step forward one of the residents said "I can't believe we lost Jess to the Rakks" Claptrap stepped back outside the alleyway and went back to the New-U station where he came from. He approached Scooter before Scooter threw his bottle of whiskey down and stood up to join a gathering of New Haven residents in the square. Claptrap looked at the gathering group and noticed they were all staring indifferently at the building where Claptrap was shooed out of by Helena Pierce.


	8. For The Greater Good of New Haven

**-For The Greater Good of New Haven-**

Everybody was looking at a figure on the first floor balcony. Helena Pierce had a scared face and never seemed to smile. She put her hands in the air to acknowledge the beginning of her speech. The people of New Haven stood with no interest at all with what Helena Pierce was saying. As her thick English accent droned through the crowd Claptrap started to move slowly around the back of the crowd. People were kicking dirt in boredom and some lit cigarettes and puffed away with such force it was like they were trying to blow Helena off the balcony. Claptrap caught some words now and then "the freedom of New Haven begins with Krom's demise". Claptrap had only heard rumours about Krom such as his hatred for robots. Helena went on and on with the speech, surely she could tell nobody in New Haven could care about what she had to say. Claptrap got the impression that Helena Pierce was the kind of leader that demanded everybody should take her seriously; it seemed that nobody liked her.

Ten minutes later Helena finished and the people of New Haven immediately split apart and went their separate ways. Claptrap followed a large man with a goatee. The man went into Marcus Kincaid's gun shop and stood behind the checkout desk. Plainly, he was Marcus Kincaid. "Well, hello my robotic friend. What brings you into my shop? Want to put a hole in Krom with this Tediore pump-action shotgun?"

"No, I don't know what I want." Claptrap replied sadly

"Care to tell me what's the matter?"

"My master is dead, I got sent here from the Dahl Headlands and I don't know what I should do." Claptrap's voice sounded totally helpless

"Well, there is one guy I know who might need some assistance. He's more crooked than a bent nail but he might be able to help you out."

"I had a master; no-one can replace who you were assigned to. No matter how cruel that master was."

"Then I guess someone who's first name is Crazy isn't right for you then." Marcus said

"No, I've heard of him. There's no chance."

"Fair enough little one. Well whatever you do, I wouldn't stick around this place for too long. Helena Pierce as you heard wants Krom dead and Krom wants us dead. Wanna hear a story?" Marcus asked as he leaned closer to Claptrap

"OK then."

"Last month a man called Jed Stokely lived with his adopted father until he decided to kill him. He carved the word "Reaver" on his father's forehead after he killed him. Jed joined Krom's army and came back a few days later to steal some of Helena's plans from her office. He attempted to cut her arm off in the process before someone heard the ruckus and stopped Jed's attack. Jed got away and now Krom knows what Helena was planning and now Helena knows Krom knows. Jed then called himself Reaver." Claptrap didn't say a word.

"So any time now we expect an attack from Krom." Marcus looked at his watch and jumped slightly in surprise "Well, I gotta run. These grenades don't sell themselves." Marcus picked up a box of grenades and ran out of the door leaving Claptrap alone with the news.


	9. Turn For The Worst: Part One

**-Turn For The Worst Part I-**

Two days had passed and Claptrap spent the time helping the residents of New Haven with tasks. These ranged from simple search and retrieve tasks to repairing machines and helping Marcus sort out crates full of weaponry. On Claptrap's third day in New Haven bandits who had set up shop just outside New Haven had been lobbing bouncing betty grenades over the walls into New Haven. One person was blown to pieces while some buildings received moderate damage. Helena Pierce was very nearly impaled by a girder when a grenade ripped apart a banner above a building. Helena ordered a party to kill the bandits and burn their camp to the ground. The bandits however were expecting an immediate counter-attack and caught the party off guard and burnt them alive with their incendiary assault rifles. Marcus Kincaid wondered where the bandits got those assault rifles from. He heard they weren't coloured blue so it wasn't Maliwan who supplied the bandits with them.

Marcus was in his shop when the vault hunter Lilith walked in. Claptrap was stacking a shelf with shotgun shells. Lilith didn't even notice the little Claptrap. Marcus told Lilith a company is supplying the bandits and is cutting out the middle man- Marcus is that middle man. Lilith walked out with a sense of purpose but without a sense of awareness of Claptrap. Claptrap wheeled over to the checkout desk and spoke to Marcus. "I know her."

"What is this, a crush on prom night? She's a human and you're a robot you two don't match each other under the sheets." Claptrap recoiled in disgust

"That's not what I meant at all!"

"OK, OK, sorry what did you mean?"

"I mean I know who she is; she helped me twice from being grinded up in a skag's digestive system and from Sledge's Runner." Claptrap this time tried not to sound like he had a crush on her- even though he didn't.

"There's no fear of Sledge anymore, little one. She killed him." Claptrap took a moment to process the information; he couldn't believe _she_ killed a brute like Sledge. Marcus opened a silver container on a shelf by his knees and picked out a black pistol. "See this? This is a Torgue pistol. They are one shady company and I wouldn't be surprised if _they_ are supplying the bandits."

"What of the bandit camp?" Claptrap asked

"Search party got shot to hell; I figure the vault hunter is going to kill them all. She does have to pass it to reach the Rust Commons, right? Unless, of course she uses the Fast Travel Network? Either way, they're gonna die today." Marcus put the pistol back in the silver container and leaned forward more to Claptrap. "They must be Krom's men, to much of a coincidence. A coincidence isn't even worth considering, this _is _Krom's doing. Well, do you fancy solving a puzzle for me?" Claptrap moved closer until he hit the desk. "There is a trash heap west of here where inside a freight container you'll find a few boxes of Tediore revolvers. Care to pick them up and shift them here?" Claptrap saluted Marcus and went outside and headed west. Claptrap wheeled past the bounty board and saw somebody enter New Haven via the west gate with his hand pressed against the left side of his waist. He vomited blood and fell to his knees. Claptrap quickly ran to the injured man and tried to aid him as best he could. The fallen man said to Claptrap "Don't go down there, you won't come back." With one last breath he choked and Claptrap knew he was dead. Claptrap ran back to Marcus and told him what had happened. Marcus joined Claptrap to the trash heap with a Vladof explosive shotgun which had a spiked butt attachment. They went down the slope and stopped to look at the small trash heap. It was a large ditch with containers and old crates. Marcus pointed to the freight container he needed. Claptrap moved over to the container and searched for the Tediore boxes. Marcus oversaw Claptrap and made sure Claptrap wasn't in danger.

Five minutes later Claptrap moved the last box to Marcus' store and Marcus followed by walking backwards with his attention and sights pointed at the ditch. Marcus was one step away from the gate when a buzz-axe screamed past him and impaled the wooden wall next to him inches from his face. Marcus turned his head from the buzz-axe to the slope where he had just walked up and saw a psycho bandit ran up the slope with a live grenade in his raised hand. The psycho wailed maniacally before blowing apart sending his limbs and split torso spinning in all directions. Marcus waited for the cloud of blood to disappear for anymore threats. Two more psychos ran up the slope with their buzz-axes raised. Marcus shot one of the psychos with an explosive round which killed the second psycho from the splash damage. Claptrap was hiding in Marcus' shop; all the residents of New Haven had the thought that Marcus had it under control. Marcus was built like an oak; it would take more than a few psychos to kill him. Marcus walked down the slope and inspected the area. He saw a freight crate with the door burnt open. The psychos were ready to ambush anyone who came by. Clearly, Krom smuggled them into New Haven but how was that man shot dead? A psycho would either kill himself to kill someone else with a grenade or hack them up with a buzz-axe. They never used guns. Marcus heard the slight sound of sand being stepped on. Marcus pointed his shotgun at the space between two freight containers and shot the ground. The explosion tore off a foot out of nowhere. Screaming pain tunnelled through the trash heap, Marcus got his confirmation on a new threat. Marcus walked around the container and found the wounded bandit who was still holding a sniper rifle. Marcus stabbed the bandit multiple times with the spiked butt of his shotgun to finish off the bandit. Marcus breathed heavily and leaned against the container a little to rest up. Marcus then headed back to his shop and threw his shotgun over the checkout desk. Claptrap popped himself over the desk and asked Marcus "What happened?"

"In short, we pissed Krom off."


	10. Turn For The Worst: Part Two

**-Turn For The Worst Part II-**

That evening Claptrap stood on a rooftop with a New Haven resident, Jeff Taylor. Jeff was holding an assault rifle and had a sniper rifle holstered on his back. Jeff wore a surgical mask and a hard hat all the time, as he put it "since the Rust Commons West sump station broke, I'd settle for breathing my own air than thousand year old turds". Jeff was a loner, many would say in Pandora you want to team up and protect one another. Jeff had the scars, he had the skills and he proved you can survive on your own in Pandora. Due to the psychos earlier that killed a resident and nearly killed Marcus, residents of New Haven had to patrol the town and lookout all night. Only a few bandits were spotted and quickly killed by snipers now and then. Waiting was always the worst part. Scooter even got involved by laying down proximity mines by the entrances to New Haven. They were fine-tuned so residents could walk past them unharmed, they would only explode if an enemy were to disturb them. Claptrap was no threat to anyone, he felt safer with someone than without someone. Marcus was on patrol on a new Gatling turret he had been making which was stationed on the rooftop of his shop. Helena Pierce was on the balcony of her building with her Hyperion assault rifle she named "The Sentinel".

Half and hour later, Claptrap noticed in the distance that the gate to the Dahl Headlands was opening. Before the gate even reached halfway open a swarm of midget psychos ran out into the outskirts of New Haven. Claptrap quickly woke up Jeff who had fallen asleep against the wall. Jeff woke up with Claptrap shouting in his face "Maniacs! There!" Jeff stood up and upholstered his sniper rifle and yelled out over his shoulder to anyone listening "We got trouble, main entrance!" Jeff stared through his scope and fired away at the horde of midgets. One by one they fell, limbs being blown off by the velocity of the bullets path, buzz-axes spinning through the air sometimes cutting down midgets behind the fallen ones killing them in the process. Two midgets managed to get to the entrance when Jeff had to reload but got caught out by the proximity mines. Scooter was hiding in his shelter with a shotgun in hand and threw down another two proximity mines for future threats. All of the midgets had been killed but it was clear Krom was just testing Helena's defences. Jeff knew that somehow Krom's forces would inevitably breakthrough New Haven. Krom lived in a canyon with his army, a massive canyon with two-hundred strong bandits. New Haven was home to about forty people who really couldn't care. But, they were determined to defend the only real refuge they had. In Pandora, you're either a bandit or an enemy to a bandit. No happy-medium.

During the aftermath of the midget invasion, Jeff told Claptrap to head to Marcus' shop and pick up a batch of explosive sniper rifle ammo for his sniper rifle. Claptrap slid down the ladder to the surface of New Haven and ran to Marcus shop a few corners away. Claptrap ran inside and snatched a small box of explosive sniper rifle ammo from the bottom shelf next to the sniper rifles hanging on the wall in front of Claptrap. Claptrap left the shop and heard a Claptrap calling out for help. Claptrap turned to his right and looked at the west gate. Claptrap moved quickly to it and looked right again and saw a green Claptrap next to a dark blue building who was covered in oil. Claptrap moved closer and inspected the fallen Claptrap. The green Claptrap's arm slid from his body onto the ground which revealed a small message scratched on his body. It read "It's a trap!" Before Claptrap could react to the message a net had been thrown over him and he was struck with a hammer knocking him out. Two bandits dragged Claptrap out of New Haven via the west gate and took off in a Runner. Marcus saw the speeding Runner and yelled out to Jeff who had a much better view of the Runner. Jeff shot his assault rifle into the Runner which sped past the various trash heaps outside the walls of New Haven. The bandits managed to drive to the east side of New Haven and exit through the gate to the Rust Commons West.


	11. The Execution

**-The Execution-**

The bandit Runner raced across the Rust Commons with the unconscious Claptrap and made it to Krom's Canyon. The two bandits pulled Claptrap (who was still trapped in a net) out of the Runner and dragged him all the way to Krom's throne at the top of the canyon. The path to Krom was a tough one, the bridges from each side of the canyon going up to Krom were unguarded and one could easily lose their footing and fall to their death. Two bridges away from Krom a bandit bruiser took over and easily finished off the journey to Krom and dumped Claptrap next to him. Krom hated Claptraps and kept loads prisoner. A medical Claptrap was tied standing up to the edge of the canyon where Krom's throne stood. Claptrap however laid knocked out still as Krom opened up a white container. Krom pulled out a silver fragment which looked like it had been broken off of something. It rang a quiet humming sound which faded silent when Krom put it back. Krom closed the container and asked a question directed to no-one in particular, "What else did you bring back?" The two bandits who had brought Claptrap looked at each other and decided they needed to answer the question.

"Nothing- that's all we could bring back."

"You had to _go_ inside New Haven to clap-nap the Claptrap?" Krom asked

"…Yeah." One of the bandits replied

"So you didn't take the time to toss some grenades in shops or kill anyone while inside, you just stole a robot?"

"Yes." Krom instantly after the bandit replied pulled out a pistol and fired at the two bandits. Krom's pistol had an electrical effect which electrocuted the two bandits causing their skulls to explode. The medical Claptrap shrieked in fright and began to wriggle in its bonds. Krom ordered the bruiser to kick the headless corpses off the bridge and into the river below.

"Come back when you have news on the attack." Krom told the bruiser who then hurried down the canyon.

An hour had passed and Krom was sitting on his throne with a skull in his hand that he was throwing in the air and catching it. The bruiser Krom had sent off to find out about the attack on New Haven was rushing back up the bridges. By the time he had reached Krom he was completely out of breath. "Krom… they… they didn't take New Ha… New Haven…" Krom didn't catch the skull this time. The skull landed with a thud on the ground, Krom stood up and kicked it at the medical Claptrap who shook off the impact. Krom paced the bridge where each time he passed the medical Claptrap he kicked him. "Tell them to stop the attack. Forget about the ones already inside the town, they're dead anyway. Everybody else who is waiting, get their hairy asses back here!" The bruiser got up from his knees and hurried down the bridges. Krom was madder than ever, he had the urge to use his turret mounted on the bridge and pepper the bandit camps on each section of the canyon. He looked at the Claptrap now hanging upside down from the shelter above Krom's throne bridge. Krom then turned to the medical Claptrap, pulled out a revolver and blew him off the bridge with a single bullet. The medical Claptrap was killed instantly when the bullet struck his optic receptor before he fell silently into the river below. A massive explosion then shook the bridges of Krom's canyon; some bandits on the bridges fell off to their deaths while others dived for cove as debris rained down from above. Krom turned his attention to the destroyed gate dividing his section of the canyon to the other. Krom jumped on his turret and yelled out to his army to kill the vault hunter.


	12. Saviour

**-Saviour-**

The vault hunter dived for cover behind the rock immediately in front of her. Krom's turret hammered the rock with bullets again and again. Bandits on each section of the canyon began to fire down on Lilith. Lilith was safe behind the rock but she had to move soon, Krom's turret finally stopped firing to reload. Lilith took this time to breakout of cover and sprint to the first bridge. She ran across the bridge while blind-firing her incendiary sub-machine gun. A bandit began to reload his pistol at the end of the bridge in front of Lilith; she punched the bandit in the face and threw him over the edge. Lilith unloaded a clip into one of the bandit campsites burning it to the ground. Bandits nearby ran around the cliff face on fire before being shot down by the gunfire from bandits on the higher ground due to their inaccurate weapons. Lilith threw an explosive contact grenade to the other side of the canyon which landed right on top of a burning psycho who exploded into a million pieces. His buzz-axe spun across the canyon cutting a midget psycho in half. Lilith entered phasewalk and sprinted up another bridge and another to reach the third cliff face of the canyon. Krom's turret began another relentless assault on Lilith which disrupted her phasewalk. Lilith hugged the wall next to the fourth bridge to shield herself from Krom's sights.

Lilith peered her head out of the wall to look at the next bandit campsite where a swarm of psychos began to run across the bridge. Lilith fired at the psychos and brought down two of the six. Lilith fired again but no bullets remained. Lilith threw her weapon away and pulled out a shock pistol which she fired at the ropes suspending the bridge. The ropes cut away from the wooden supports and the bridge began to uncontrollably swing from side to side. The psychos fell from each side all but one held on. The surviving psycho went prone on the bridge and quickly scurried over to Lilith's side of the bridge where he plunged his buzz-axe into her right thigh. Lilith screamed out in agony before shoving the barrel of her shock pistol into the psycho's mouth, pulling the trigger and exploding his head. Lilith couldn't move, the buzz-axe had sunk in deep into her thigh, she tried to phasewalk but she didn't have enough energy. At that moment, a voice inside her head pleaded with her "You are Pandora's only hope to stop Krom's evil schemes, he has a piece of the vault key which he will use in conjunction with Baron Flynt's piece and the remaining two pieces to unlock the vault. All of Pandora rests on your shoulders." Lilith decided the best way to pull out the buzz-axe was to pull it through the wound, not out of it. She grabbed it underneath her thigh where the circular blade was. She tugged at it again and again but it barely moved an inch. She stretched for a piece of wood which was resting beside her. She held it vertically and slammed it down on the handle of the buzz-axe which was sticking out on her thigh. She cried in pain and the buzz-axe moved further out of her thigh, two more tries at the most and the buzz-axe would be free. After two more strikes the buzz-axe slipped out of her thigh and onto the ground. Krom couldn't see her at all; he thought she was dead after the psycho jumped on her. Krom couldn't hear her cries of pain however because he was so far away. Lilith pressed down hard on the wound of her thigh and managed to enter phasewalk and channel her Inner Glow ability to regenerate her health. The entrance and exit wound on her thigh sealed up and Lilith stood up from the ground. She ran across the next series of bridges while in the invisible cover of her phasewalk.

She reached Krom's throne where she pounced straight behind Krom who was still sitting on his turret. She clung onto his thick shoulders and exited phasewalk. The elemental effect of phasewalk burned all over Krom whose skin began to burn intensely. She stabbed her shock pistol into the centre of his back so the barrel actually struck the spine and fired all of her rounds into his spine. She back flipped off Krom and watched as he stood up from the turret, burning alive with his spine internally splintering his body. Krom stood there as if he was crucified and fell from the bridge all the way down to the river. Lilith opened the container and pocketed the vault key. Claptrap was still upside down who wriggled as much as he could to get her attention. Lilith saw Claptrap and shot the ropes down so Claptrap fell to the ground. Lilith entered phasewalk again and disappeared from view. Claptrap felt deeply alone at that point until without warning he found himself hovering from the ground and charging down the canyon. Lilith had picked him up in phasewalk where he too was invisible from anybody else. Outside the canyon Claptrap was set down by the Catch-A-Ride station away from danger. Claptrap waved goodbye as the siren ran into the distance and out of sight.


	13. A Maniac Dies, Another Takes Its Place

**-A Maniac Dies, Another Take Its Place-**

Claptrap roamed the Rust Commons East looking for a place to rest his head. Claptrap found a structure which was an old fuel station with a bridge above it accompanied with a New-U station and a Catch-A-Ride station. Claptrap had heard about an area in the Rust Commons known as the "Middle of Nowhere". Claptrap found it a certainty that this was the Middle of Nowhere. Claptrap scaled the staircase which led to a platform above the Catch-A-Ride station where a weapon and a medical vendor stood. In between the two vendors there was a disused bounty board. Claptrap moved to the New-U station and saw a man in a hut by the end of the bridge. Claptrap slowly moved towards him where before he could talk to him the man said "No life here, off-worlder." Claptrap saw behind him the sun high in the sky and a bandit populated fuel station which was much larger than the Middle of Nowhere fuel station. "Yep, them bandits built that some years ago, thought they'd leave me alone and watch my once popular place here go down the crapper." The man wore a hard hat and had a grizzled beard. This man was a worker, not a bandit but a man who had done a day's work in his life and now looked beyond bored. Claptrap spoke to him with concern.

"What are you still doing here?"

"Good question. I don't have access to my own Catch-A-Ride station anymore, Reaver took my card and I'm not walking through bandits to get to safety. Nobody wants to venture out in the Commons anymore and I can't blame them. Y'know Reaver?"

"Yeah, I've heard of him."

"Well, he stopped by here and looted the place before siding with Krom's men. Speaking of which, I saw flames rise up from his canyon earlier, and then a vault hunter came by here to Fast Travel somewhere. She said Krom is dead. If that's true then thank god for that. He's been hell-bent on expanding all over the Rust Commons. Good to see someone take a stand and kill the bastard."

Night fell over Pandora; Claptrap was still awake and watched the bandits patrol the fuel station in the distance. Claptrap dwelled on the series of events that had occurred this week since this week was coming to an end. From Lilith's bandit liberation of Fyrestone, T.K's death, the Dahl Headlands, his first Fast Travel experience, the defence of New Haven, being Clap-napped, held hostage by Krom and Krom's grisly death. Could things get any worse? For the first time in many days, Claptrap genuinely felt safe. Maybe it is because the area he is in is called the Middle of Nowhere. Even in New Haven, Claptrap didn't feel safe because New Haven was under threat; bandits were literally on their doorstep. Sure, there was a bandit fuel station in the distance but they were no threat at all. Nobody cared about the Middle of Nowhere. Finally, after much thinking- Claptrap fell into a deep sleep.

The midday sun woke up Claptrap. The man Claptrap spoke to yesterday was long gone and left nothing behind to clue his whereabouts. Claptrap moved to his hut where he suddenly dived off the bridge when a beam of purple light blasted out of a northern cliff overlooking the Middle of Nowhere and crashed into another beam of purple light which shot out from a cliff east from the Middle of Nowhere. The two beams collided into one another which caused a third of beam of purple light shooting into the sky. Claptrap laid on the sand gazing at the awesome sight of elemental collisions. Both cliffs were where two interplanetary beacons were stationed which had been offline for months. Clearly, the vault hunter had just re-activated them which would enable Helena Pierce access to off-world communications.

Claptrap picked himself up and saw something appear from the eastern cliff. It appeared to be on fire and when it got closer it turned out to be a Runner. Claptrap looked on in horror as the burning Runner fell like an Armageddon flame. Pieces of metal broke free from the Runner and each piece flanked the burning Runner. Fire rained down from the sky and eventually crashed into the small canyon which ran from the ruined docks by the drawbridges east from the Middle of Nowhere. Claptrap crept up the slope which looked down on the canyon. Claptrap saw somebody crawling out of the wreckage clutching his leg. Claptrap couldn't believe he was still alive; any human being would have been killed instantly from a fall like that. However, the person who survived wasn't human. When he eventually stood up Claptrap saw from his clothes he was a bandit. The bandit looked up at the slope and saw Claptrap; he pointed at him and called out to him "Get down here!" Claptrap recoiled from the edge of the slope and began to flee from the area. The bandit sprinted from the crash site as much as he could; despite his injured leg he caught a lot of speed. From the build the bandit had it was clear he was a steroid abuser, steroids were quite popular amongst the bandit population. He ran up the slope and cleared the Middle of Nowhere. Claptrap was sprinting as far as his wheel could take him with his arms waving in the air. Claptrap was so scared he didn't realise he was running into the bandit fuel station. A bullet punctured Claptrap's wheel and Claptrap tripped over the ground and crashed into the side of a washing machine near one of the small buildings. Three bandits surrounded the fallen Claptrap and looked down on him. "Haven't we got a Claptrap in Old Haven?"

"Yeah, send him there. He wanders into our lands, he's ours." Another bandit replied. The injured bandit reached the fuel station and said that he'd take him to Old Haven.

The three bandits left the injured bandit with Claptrap and ran up the hill to a gate which divided the Rust Commons East and West. The bandits spawned a Runner from the Catch-A-Ride station there and drove it to the injured bandit. The three bandits dumped Claptrap in the Runner and the injured bandit got inside and drove off past the Middle of Nowhere. He turned to his left through a wide tunnel and passed a bandit camp. The bandit drove across a drawbridge and reached an open plain where a vault-like door stood which was the entrance to Old Haven. The bandit took Claptrap from the Runner and dragged him through the door into a world of issues.


	14. Bandit Apocalypse

**-Bandit Apocalypse-**

Behind the vault door was a small room where a vertical sliding door stood. The bandit pressed a green button on a speaker and spoke roughly into the speaker microphone. "Lemme in, I've got a prisoner." The vertical door slid upwards and the bandit kicked Claptrap through it and into a sandy pathway. Old Haven was much bigger than New Haven, buildings were built of much better quality and there was actually grass there. New Haven was a wasteland; Old Haven looked like paradise in comparison. The buildings had no more than three floors; there was a flood control ditch and even a small dockland outside the town. A bandit standing on a rooftop called down to the injured bandit and asked him why he's got a Claptrap with him. The bandit replied "because I can". Claptrap's wheel was still punctured, he was been dragged on his back by his arm through Old Haven where at every corner a bandit stood armed to the teeth. Claptrap wondered whether they were part of Krom's army or Baron Flynt's. It made no difference, the two were still bandits.

Claptrap was thrown into the flood control ditch where he remained until the bandit who had now applied a bandage around his injured knee jumped down and grabbed hold of Claptrap's arm again. The bandit buckled under the impact a little bit and picked Claptrap's arm up again. Claptrap was dragged up the metal staircase where his head hit every single step on the way up. A badass bruiser stood guard on the top of the staircase with a rocket launcher and Claptrap saw the building that controlled the flood ditch. One floor up, bandits were on patrol. The bandit pulled Claptrap to a metal-caged tower which had two cages. Claptrap saw a green Claptrap on the top cage cling on to the bars and beg for release. The bandit threw a brick at the bars and the Claptrap sprang back from the bars. The bandit opened the bottom cage and kicked Claptrap in there and closed the door. The bandit locked the cage door and limped away from the caged tower. Claptrap was once again held hostage and this time it looked like he would be kept inside for a long time. All the bandits did was patrol Old Haven, probably awaiting orders to do something more productive from their leader which ultimately was Baron Flynt since he was the head of all bandits. Claptrap sat against the bars with nothing to do in the company of a Claptrap with many, many stories.


	15. Two of A Kind

**-Two of a Kind-**

Claptrap had been kept prisoner for two hours. Bandits passed in silence with no interest in Claptrap. The green Claptrap in the cage above continued to plead with the bandits with strange spiritual dialect. "Pandora's legacy is under threat; you've got to let me go so I can help the struggle!" Claptrap couldn't move under the power of his wheel, he pulled and pushed at the bars to move but why did he bother? The cage couldn't hold four ordinary sized people, there was nothing to do but sit. Claptrap preferred to sit instead of standing. He had been hung upside-down, fallen from a cliff flat on his face, dragged across the sand by a skag and shot by Sledge. Claptrap had just about enough of the abuse he had faced since Fyrestone. The bandits didn't talk much, at least the ones near Claptrap but on the odd occasions Claptrap caught some words that interested him such as "Tannis", "Hyperion", "Salt Flats", "Atlas Corporation", "Strongbox" and "Crimson Lance". Claptrap could sense an anticipation of sorts within the bandits. They were expecting something and Claptrap couldn't help but think it was bad.

A small box slipped through the cage above Claptrap and knocked Claptrap's head and fell on the floor. Claptrap picked it up and saw it was a small repair kit which could fix his punctured wheel. Claptrap looked up and saw the green Claptrap salute Claptrap. Claptrap opened the lid and took out a roll of sticky tape and a small air can. He taped up the puncture and left a small hole where he could stick the air can's nozzle in and fill up the wheel. The can hissed new air into the wheel and within seconds Claptrap's wheel was as good as new. Claptrap ripped off another strip of tape and sealed the hole so air couldn't escape. Claptrap threw the repair kit through the bars and sat as normal. The bandits had no idea what Claptrap had just done. The green Claptrap sat against the bars and spoke to Claptrap. "Why are you here?" Claptrap startled a little bit because his mind had drifted elsewhere. He shook his head and replied.

"Because nothing has gone right."

"How so?"

"The bandits, they've been the centre of my bad luck." The green Claptrap laid on his front and looked between the bars on the floor right above Claptrap.

"Where does your story start?"

"Fyrestone, the Arid Badlands. It ended there too." Claptrap answered

"It doesn't end until you're dead. You are still alive. So, where will it end?"

"I haven't made a choice."

"I would." The green Claptrap reached his arm through the bars and poked Claptrap on his head. "Because the vault will open in a few days and we must all be prepared for the cataclysm." Claptrap couldn't wrap his head around the vault nonsense. Was it real? This Claptrap robot sure thinks so.

"I don't know why I bother anymore?" Claptrap said sadly "The only time I've found safety is when I was in the Middle of Nowhere and that didn't last long. Now I'm here, where do I go from here? Where can I go? You don't need to answer that by the way."

"Watch out!" The green Claptrap shot back up on his wheel and shouted at the bandit bruiser again with pleas to be set free. The bruiser punched the green Claptrap through the bars and knocked him out. The bruiser walked up the steps to the building with the flood ditch controls. He walked to the very end of the balcony and rested his hands on the rails. He looked in the direction of Old Haven's entrance and saw a fire lick up from the surface. He could only see a bit of the pathway by the entrance because of the buildings obscuring his view. Distant sounds of gunfire came into earshot and the bruiser knew something out of the ordinary was happening. He called out to the bandits on the three-story building who Claptrap heard when he was dragged into Old Haven. The bandits began to fire down on the Old Haven entrance. One of the bandits ducked down behind cover and wrote a message on a sheet of metal with a white pen which read "Crimson LaNCE!" The bruiser ran immediately from the balcony and rallied the bandits around the flood ditch and prepared defensive strategies.


	16. The Massacre of Old Haven

**-The Massacre of Old Haven-**

The bandits were under attack. Indeed, the sign the bandit had written was true, the Crimson Lance under the influence of the Atlas Corporation had begun an invasion of Old Haven. The hot topic of the day amongst the bandits in Old Haven had been about the Crimson Lance. Commander Steele had been ravaging small towns in Pandora and using them as Crimson Lance military hubs. The town of Old Haven was they're new target. The main entrance of Old Haven had been burnt through with plasma cutters. Crimson Lance infantry sprinted from the entrance all across the field and took cover against walls and small huts. The bandits on the entrance pathway were taken totally by surprise and were quick to get killed. Bandits on the buildings to the right of the entrance had no way of preparing, when they realised the Crimson Lance had breached the entrance they got hold of their weapons and tried to fend them off. Waves of Crimson Lance managed to move further into the field out of sight and were able to pick off the bandits on the buildings. An explosion sounded off by the canal district which was on the other side of Old Haven. The wall by the canal district exploded into the town. Crimson Lance swarmed in and immediately fired through the smoke killing bandits thanks to their thermal imaging in their helmets. The bandits ran for cover, some were shot down while others managed to find safety. Grenades were thrown all over the place, the Crimson Lance used transfusion grenades which exploded and stabbed needles into anybody close enough which stole their health which would shoot back into the Crimson Lance soldiers.

The bandits by the flood ditch knew the lethality of the Crimson Lance and decided to hatch an old bandit trick. Since bandits were denied the use of the ECHO Network they used smoke signals for SOS signs. One of the bandits released the lid off of an old container where the smoke rose from the burning wood. Another smoke signal rose from the junkyard near the flood ditch. No help was on its way though. Nobody wanted to help the bandits, they had no friends. Within minutes the Crimson Lance had control of the main entrance. The bandits' only hope for escape was the docks and the breached walls. To get to the walls they had to fight through a much tougher, lethal and a more prepared enemy. Quickly, the Crimson Lance seized the canal district. Only the junkyard and the apartment districts were still bandit controlled. The Crimson Lance advanced to the flood ditch area. A fierce fire fight between the Crimson Lance and the bandits raged between the flood ditch. A burst of gunfire from a Lance Engineer caught the padlock on Claptrap's cage door. Claptrap stood frozen in fear where the Claptrap above him shouted to him "Run for your life!" Claptrap did exactly that. Claptrap sprinted with his arms waving in the air; he ran to the junkyard area and turned a corner. He skidded to a halt when a badass Lance Engineer stood in front of him. Claptrap was running so fast he skidded to a stop just when he slightly touched the Lance Engineer's arm. The Lance engineer picked Claptrap up and threw him to his right into an open shutter. Claptrap crashed into the wall where he landed on the floor on his back spread-eagled. Claptrap fell slowly into unconsciousness as the massacre of Old Haven continued. Maybe, just maybe Claptrap could finally leave Pandora behind…

Minutes later the flood ditch was taken and the junkyard district was in Crimson Lance hands. All bandits left were hunted down and killed. The Crimson Lance decided to use the bandits' smoke signals to lure in any other bandits or anyone out there to investigate Old Haven. The Crimson Lance had made their mark in the Rust Commons and future attacks were only a matter of time.


	17. Final Chapter: Lost & Found

**-Lost & Found****-**

Claptrap had been unconscious for two hours. The Crimson Lance was in total control of Old Haven. The Crimson Lance hadn't taken any casualties. The smoke signals still rose from the town as a trick to bait bandits in the Rust Commons in to investigate Old Haven. The Crimson Lance patrolled Old Haven and overturned every piece of furniture, every building, every place where bandits could be hiding. Claptrap was assumed dead by the Crimson Lance, the green Claptrap in the cage was still alive but beyond terrified. Outside Old Haven however, the vault hunter who had helped Claptrap many times before stopped in her Runner and jumped out. She opened the door to Old Haven which had been left unlocked so bandits could easily come inside thanks to the Crimson Lance. Lilith found four dead bandits in the room dividing Old Haven and the Rust Commons. She opened the door to Old Haven and saw a group of Crimson Lance infantry standing in a line by a wall to her far left. The wall had six bandits slumped against it with blood splattered all over it. Obviously she thought, this was a firing squad. She took out a MIRV corrosive grenade and threw it at the firing squad. The grenade exploded melting the Crimson Lance immediately. The corrosive explosion alerted Crimson Lance infantry on the rooftops who saw Lilith by the entrance. They shot on sight but Lilith was far too quick entering phasewalk. She scaled the pipes stuck on the walls to reach the rooftops. The Crimson Lance soldier on the rooftops right to the entrance kept his sights on the main entrance for Lilith. Lilith punched the soldier in the spine which caused the Crimson lance soldier to melt from the inside. Lilith kept low; she made her way quietly to the smoke container on the rooftops and shut it down. She dropped from the rooftop to the ground where she rolled behind a washing machine to avoid a pair of Crimson Lance defenders running around the corner. Lilith moved quickly but quietly to a nearby alleyway where the Claptrap had been tossed into the shutter. The Crimson Lance was called away to the apartment canal district so there was little resistance where Lilith was. She looked inside the shutter and found the defunct Claptrap.

She walked inside and inspected Claptrap. Claptrap didn't have any serious injuries, but all the injuries he had sustained before hand had taken its toll and Claptrap looked in bad shape. Lilith woke up the unconscious Claptrap who abandoned his friendly nature and fed Lilith harsh words "Funny, how just when you think life can't possibly get any worse it suddenly does. I think you ought to know I'm feeling very depressed. A guy finally gets a break from all the shooting and raping. Oh yes, these are desperate men. Just when he's having a rest, you come along and repair him. I suppose you want a reward for exposing me to more of this torturous existence." Claptrap handed Lilith a backpack SDU. Lilith told Claptrap she will escort Claptrap out of Old Haven. Claptrap agreed, despite his depression he wanted out of Old Haven. Lilith backtracked with Claptrap out of the alley and through the dense corners of the rooftop area. They got to the main entrance where a group of Crimson Lance infantry were investigating the corroded infantry Lilith had killed. Lilith walked with her explosive assault rifle aimed at the group while Claptrap made a break for it to the main entrance door. Claptrap opened it and dived inside where the door closed behind him. Gunshots and distorted words were all that Claptrap heard. Claptrap saw the dead bandits and ran for the door leading to the Rust Commons. Claptrap finally escaped the ravaged town of Old Haven. Claptrap began to move to the right where the gate leading to the Salt Flats stood. He saw a red Claptrap there who saluted Claptrap when he was near him. The red Claptrap said "Greetings! Do you want access to the Salt Flats?"

"I don't know, anywhere but here." Claptrap continued "Humanity has brought me nothing but misery." The red Claptrap suddenly changed his expression and whispered to Claptrap

"Those flesh-bags treat you bad?"

"Yes, terribly."

"Well my lonely Claptrap, you've got two choices." The red Claptrap went on "Continue to watch them move their meat-flaps or take a stand."

"I'm with you." Claptrap told the red Claptrap who simply said in return

"Follow me." Claptrap followed the red Claptrap to a slope to the left of the Salt Flats gate where they reached the peak where the cliffs stood. The red Claptrap pushed a rock that was stabbed into the cliff face where a hidden door opened. They both walked in to the underground network of the Hyperion Corporation.


End file.
